Rinaldi: Still a lot of work to do to improve our weak points for next year

Despite taking over fourth from Andrea Locatelli in the WorldSBK championship at San Juan, Michael Rinaldi feels ‘a lot of work’ needs to be done to make a step in 2022

Robert Jones

19 Oct 2021

Michael Ruben Rinaldi, WorldSBK Race2, 17 October 2021
© Gold and Goose

Despite a superb ride to claim third from ninth on the grid in WorldSBK race one, Michael Rinaldi was left slightly disappointed by the overall performance at San Juan.

A mistake in Superpole qualifying left the Italian out of position after having shown top five pace throughout Friday free practice.

But, Rinaldi quickly made his way to sixth before getting the better of Andrea Locatelli, the man he was tied on points with heading into the event.

Rinaldi then made light work of both Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes, however, Sunday’s races proved more difficult due to another error in the Superpole race.

Rinaldi eventually made his way from eighth through to fifth in race two, which means an eight point gap has now been created between he and Locatelli in their battle for P4 in the championship.

Speaking after the race, Rinaldi was happy about the points situation, but not the lack of grip he suffered with: "For sure, for the championship it is good points because I’m fighting for fourth place with Locatelli. But, we compromised our weekend with qualifying in the Superpole race.

"When the track has more grip we are not able to get the acceleration to go faster. Today I made my best lap of the weekend on the 18th lap of the race which is for sure good for the race, but we need to understand how to use the grip when the track or the tyre offers it.

"But we are not in the right way at the moment to solve this problem. For sure, we are putting all our effort to try to understand how to be faster."

While fourth place is Rinaldi’s goal for the remainder of 2021, the factory Ducati rider has already shifted some of his focus towards 2022 with ‘a lot of work’ still needing to take place.

"I want to arrive fourth in the championship and it’s so important for the team as well," added Rinaldi.

"So, my goal is that, but also this year is a year where we need to work for the next year. Unfortunately we still have a lot of work to do to improve our weak points."